TOWN ELECTION: Will Plymouth vote to delay license for nuclear plant?

Wednesday

May 2, 2012 at 12:01 AMMay 2, 2012 at 2:14 AM

With the town election less than two weeks away, critics of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are gearing up for one last push they hope will convince Plymouth voters to support a nonbinding referendum to freeze the Nuclear Regular Commission’s license renewal process until safety fixes arising out of the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster are completed.

Freeze Pilgrim, the local ballot question committee, held its second and final educational forum last Wednesday.

Frank Mand

“We The People of Plymouth, Massachusetts, direct the Plymouth Board of Selectmen to call upon the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to immediately suspend all further action on the application of the Entergy Corporation for renewal of its license to operate the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station pending the full implementation of all safety improvements recommended by the NRC as a result of lessons learned from the failures of similarly designed reactors in Fukushima, Japan.” – May 12 nonbinding referendum question

With the town election less than two weeks away, critics of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are gearing up for one last push they hope will convince Plymouth voters to support a nonbinding referendum to freeze the Nuclear Regular Commission’s license renewal process until safety fixes arising out of the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster are completed.

Freeze Pilgrim, the local ballot question committee, held its second and final educational forum last Wednesday.

This forum featured an informal debate between David Lochbaum, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Russell Gocht, an engineer and entrepreneur who is presently pursuing an advanced degree in nuclear engineering.

Gocht and Lochbaum disagreed on everything except the pronunciation of “nuclear.”

Gocht is a fervent supporter of nuclear power, and suggested that instead of delaying the licensing process for Pilgrim, the town of Plymouth should be preparing for a second, updated nuclear facility that could be built in Plymouth once Pilgrim’s 20-year license extension expires.

Gocht is not only unconcerned with the spent fuel pool at Pilgrim, he says it will become a valuable resource in the near future, when reprocessing becomes economically viable.

Lochbaum, who is considered a nuclear safety advocate, said he would be happy if all American nuclear power plants, including Pilgrim, simply met all of the NRC’s regulatory requirements.

They do not, Lochbaum said, and until they do license renewal should not take place.

Lochbaum said the spent fuel pool is a source of great concern, and specifically critiqued the NRC’s proposed “fix” for spent fuel pools, which, she said, in an emergency could have the effect of creating a manmade tsunami within the containment building.

Across Southeastern Massachusetts and on Cape Cod dozens of other communities have gone to the polls or voted at their respective town meetings to voice concern with Pilgrim’s relicensing.

Scituate, Kingston, Duxbury, Marshfield, Truro and Provincetown have already voted in support of a delay in relicensing. And Brewster, Eastham, Mashpee, Dennis and Harwich will take up the issue this month.

The most important vote, however, is set to take place May 12 here in Plymouth.

Marshfield resident Anna Baker, founder of Pilgrim MUST and a member of the anti-nuclear group Pilgrim Coalition, is urging coalition members to support the Freeze Pilgrim organization with donations and by holding signs in Plymouth on Election Day.

“Plymouth is a key vote,” Baker told coalition members in an email this week. “If we lose this vote, all battles to ensure essential fixes are implemented at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station become exponentially more challenging.”

The coalition is also taking its case to the State House, asking Gov. Deval Patrick to directly intercede with the NRC to ensure, at the very least, that it does not act on the license renewal request until the remaining legal contentions filed by Pilgrim Watch and the Jones River Watershed Association have had their day in court.

April 23, NRC staff voted to recommend that the five-member commission relicense the plant, and coalition members perceived this as an effort to circumvent the legally prescribed process.

NRC Spokesman Neil Sheehan told the Old Colony that is not the case. In fact, this is simply staff making a recommendation to assist the commissioners, who have the final say.

But Coalition members aren’t convinced.

“This is simply an outrage,” Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch said. “The NRC is doing Entergy’s bidding and trying to trample our rights to have our concerns heard in a full and fair process.”

Pine duBois, executive director of the Jones River Watershed Association, says the plant’s need for billions of gallons of water from Cape Cod Bay every week has to end.

“Enough is enough,” duBois said. “The scale of destruction of Cape Cod Bay and its resources by Entergy’s operations over the past 40 years is incalculable and we have a right to be fairly heard.”

“It’s time for Massachusetts to move beyond dangerous, polluting and unsafe energy technologies in all forms,” James McCaffrey, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club, added.

“The clock ran out a long time ago for Pilgrim, and it should not be reset for this aged and unsafe facility. This maneuver by the NRC to relicense Pilgrim prior to the resolution of outstanding appeals is an affront to the citizens of the commonwealth, the environment and pubic health.”